[Poker Brothers] caltabiano's grinding + farming FTW!

lol I wonder what picture you have of Brazil in your minds, hahaha. Half naked girls around? ♠_biggrin: You can see girls in bikini if you go to the beach, but that's all. I guess it's like that in any beach anywhere in the world.

About safety, well yeah, Brazil has a lot more crime than 1st World countries, but there's not much we can do about it. If I get mugged on the streets, I can either try to fight back or just accept being mugged, hahaha. It has never happened to me though. Rio is one of the worst cities, because they basically have a civil war going on there.

Brasilia is relatively safe compared to Rio and many other cities. The outskirts of the city are a lot more dangerous though. So, you just have to know where you can walk around and where you cannot walk around.

@alejandrosh: We cash out through Neteller and it's pretty easy. As easy as anywhere else in the world I guess =D The only problem here is that we cannot transfer funds from Neteller or Moneybookers to our bank accounts nor can we deposit money in Neteller and moneybookers. That isn't really a problem though, since we don't need to deposit and we don't need to transfer funds directly into our bank accounts, because we're only dealing with small quantities for the moment being. When we're making millions it'll be a different story, I guess... But then again, when you're making millions people make everything easier for you ♦

Guys, this is a great blog! My apologies for not complimenting both of you sooner, but I have been reading it since it started. I would like to ask you something though: can you guys please send me your Skype IDs in a PM? I would really appreciate that

Thanks in advance,
vhallee

Originally posted by caltabiano
because we're only dealing with small quantities for the moment being. When we're making millions it'll be a different story, I guess... But then again, when you're making millions people make everything easier for you ♦

So true LOLOL

Haha, the great vhallee pleasures us with his presence in our blog. Thanks we're glad you enjoy it. PM with skype ID is no its way

I'll take the opportunity and just quickly update it. I'm going back to Brasilia today at 20h. I should be there tomorrow at mid-day, cause I'm going by bus. So it's like 14h on the road. Pretty sick, but I like being on the road

Tomorrow I'll go back to sickly grinding on the computer It was nice having this week off to chill. I finished reading "The Poker Mindset" this week, and by the way, this is a must read for anybody who wants to take poker seriously. Best book ever!

I wanna score $1.8k of rakeback this month. I have something like $1.1k already. $1.8k equals R$3k, which is pretty nice. I'm gonna have some extra expenses with my car next month, so I'll need the money.

I have now reached a stage where I can actually start stashing money away I can live very confortably, VERY confortably with R$1.5k (when we left our parents house we were living on R$800). So if I make R$3k a month, I can start building a nice savings account. I had a savings account once with a pretty nice amount of money in it. My parents started building it since I was born. The purpose of it was so that I could live through college without having to worry about working. But I obviously spent it all with booze and my parents got extremely disappointed with me. Luckily I don't drink anymore That's SUCH a money saver, I tell you.

Yesterday the flu got to me But I'm 75% cured already. I'm gonna tell you the little secret to cure flus. As soon as the firsts signs of flu show up, take 3 garlic teeth a day. You should take it as if it were a pill. One in the monrnig, one at lunch and one before going to bed. Also you should always start the day with the juice from 1 lemon. You must take it with en empty stomach, as soon as you wake up. While you're sick, don't eat much. You should eat mostly fruit. Don't eat meat, as it is a heavy burden to your body and digesting it consumes a lot of energy. Also, don't spend the whole day in bed saying: "oh... I'm sick". Movement = life, stagnation = disease. Try not to sleep much, and go out for a walk or something. Don't push too much obviously. Your body is weak.

And that's it, I guess I'm off now people.

Cheers!

gl buddy

Yooo everyone! I'm just writing to say hello from Argentina. In one week I should be back home.

I have ALMOST played some live poker here, but in the end I decided not to. My options were

1 - The big casino in town: the problem was that they only had NL1K+ (that is about $350 usd), and even though live poker is fishy that would be too much of a leap for me. I play NL200 SSS, so I gotta be realistic here right? I'd be willing to play with up to 200 usd...

2 - Illegal tourneys: apparently there are lots of those happening around Buenos Aires. Yesterday I had it all set to go to one of these but I gave up after all. People here told me the cops don't really bother about it, but I just think it's totally unnecessary to run the risk of being busted in a foreign country.

So I'll just wait till I get back home for grinding .

Regarding the questions about Brazil, yeah, as my brother said, it's generally less safe here than in Germany or Switzerland. But it's not that bad really, you just gotta know your way around and which places to avoid.
Some cities are worse than others, Rio and Sao Paulo are known to be more dangerous, but Brasilia is pretty alright.

My brother and I are cooking up a nice challenge for ourselves. We'll let you know once I'm back home

Gotta go now,
Peace!

Dandycal, I play at everest poker SSS too and I just wonder how the other sites you played at compare to everest. I'm currently only at nl25, just started nl50 but I still find everest to be pretty easy. Is it harder on pokerstars??

Hey Arisko,

Pokerstars has the largest online traffic, it does has better regulars than many other networks, but you can also find lots and lots of fish. Everestt is probably very fishy, but once you move up to NL100 you won't find enough tables to play, so it'll probably be best for you to go somewhere else.

caltabiano - 31st of october

This my friends, is my lifetime graph (since the 24th of June of 2009)

On the 24th of June, my brother and I decided we'd go pro. I had $800 in my bankroll and was playing NL20. But more important, I had the confidence that things would work out.
On the 1st of June, we left our parents house. We figured we needed about $400 each in order to support ourselves. And we could easily do that. When I moved out, I had grown my roll into $1.7k with a little help from rakeback.
Today, on the 31st of october, I can EASILY make $1.5k a month out of bonuses alone, which is a lot MORE than enough for me to support myself. My bankroll stands at $7k and I'm estabilished in NL100, hoping to move up once more soon.

Our decision to go pro has definitely been a good one. Being able to be our own bosses has always been something we wanted. We always dreaded working in an office, working as a public servant.
Poker can grant you that. It can grant you financial independence and a "free" lifestyle.

But, a lot more than that, it can actually teach you about life. Poker has so many great lessons to teach us: patience, hard work, determination, big picture, things outside our power... I could list so many topics and talk so much about each one of them.
Poker is a game of incomplete information, and so is life. you're always striving to make the best move. You're always tring not to tilt. you're always trying not to complain about something bad that happened to you, some piece of "bad luck". Your friend died, you broke your leg, you got sick and can't go to that concert you had been dreaming about. That's all Fortune. Or Variance, as we call it in poker.

Yet, we must always focus on what is in OUR power and that's the only things we should worry about: what we can control. You can't control your opponents actions, you can't controls the cards that will be dealt. Like in life, you can only control your own actions. You can't control where you are born, who your parents are, how they're gonna treat you, if you're gonna be in a wealthy or in a poor family, if you're gonna die young or old, if you're gonna be a healthy man or not. You can only try to do the best with what you have been given and ACCEPT whatever happens and remember always: "I've done the best I could." There's no room for ego in life, just like there's no room for ego in poker. Fortune knows how to beat up a big ego.

Know when you're beat, know when you're good, do not be afraid to value bet, do not be afraid to be wrong. You WILL value town yourself from time to time, your bluffs WILL get caught from time to time, you WILL have to fold very often. Be wrong, correct your mistakes and go back to your tables. Be wrong AGAIN, correct your mistakes and go back to the tables. ALWAYS try to be better than you are. There's ALWAYS a leak to be plugged.

It's ok to be a fish in poker, it's just a game. But it kind of sucks to be a fish in life =/ Keep improving your game, everybody has got what it takes to crush life. All you need is a bit of motivation, good energy, confidence and the most important thing: BELIEVE! Belive in the perfection of Nature. Know that She knows it all. Whatever is not in your control, is in Hers. So do not worry about things out of your grasp, cause She knows what She's doing. Focus on YOUR move. Focus on THIS move. There's only NOW. Remember that Variance evens out in the end ♠_cool:

Now, let me tell you something. My brother and I are gonna set a challenger for us for the end of this year. Following the success of 2M2MM ando f 10 days 10K, we present you with:

Did you get it, eh eh? Since it's TWO months, TWO million and TEN days, TEN K, we couldnt just name it TWO months, TEN K. So, since the plan is to finish it in New Year (going to 2010), we call it: TWO months, TWO thousand and ten K

I know, I know, the name sucks, but I don't really care. It has some pricinple behind it

So the plan is that both of us together will make $10k until the turn of the year, starting tomorrow!

AND I'll start teaching my brother how to play BSS meanwhile

I'm pretty confident we can pull it off. We're gonna settle some penalty stunts and some lockdowns if needed, for sure

We'll make some videos of us and some videos of poker and post them here.

I'm also gonna set some goals of my own, but I'll do that a week from now.

So, let the challenge being!!! ♠_cool:

Very nice post! Cool to start out pro at NL20 and still move up like you did. Where do you play to get 1,5k bonuses every month btw?

Originally posted by Fongie
Very nice post! Cool to start out pro at NL20 and still move up like you did. Where do you play to get 1,5k bonuses every month btw?

iPoker!

So I just finished my first session of the challenge and I obviously ran cold as hell =D (cold as hell?)

-$453, but $650 under EV obviously

No matter though

Dammits, I'm bronze =/ Can't go to the hand evaluation forum ♠_cry: I'll be diamond by the end of the month however ♠_cool:

___________________________________

2 months, 20(10k): -453/10.000

2nd/November/09. Dandycal: SSS NL200 + BSSNL25

It feels good to be home. I was getting a little tired of being idle tbh, but travelling and seeing some good old friends was trully great. Argentina is a fine country with beautiful cities, albeit with clear signs of underdevelopment as any other south american country, it is the most european of all nations in this part of the continent. Given their weakend currency, everything there was very cheap, I mean VERY cheap. I could sit down at a mighty fine restaurant and have a complete meal (delicious pasta, desert and drink) for the equivalent of $5(usd).

For the next couple of months I should be dedicating myself completely to working/studying, that is both for poker and for my non poker-related activities. It's time to be productive again.

We set up a nice financial challenge for us, coupled with the fact that I'll be learning to play with a Full Stack. Of course I'll be SSSing NL100 and 200 intensively in order to achieve the 10k goal together wiht my brother, so I'll have to split my time between learning BSS and grinding for the 2010k challenge. But as I share a flat with my BSS coach ;), I expect my progress to be quite fast and if by January 2010 I can play NL50 SH confidently I'll be quite satistfied.

Today I have purged my database from all old HH and bought a brand new bulk of 2 million hands for NL100+200 to start my grinding with a decent amount of info. PC is still importing the hands, so I spent the day playing BSS NL25 FR and getting acquainted with the strategy. Played 200 hands for a break even result, but already noted down many doubts to discuss with me brother ♠_cool:

Oh yeah, besides all that I'm still waiting to get my Supernova VIP, but that shouldn't take long. Sweeeet rakeback is on the way ♦

I guess that's all for now, we'll be posting our results here and I might share some photos of my trip as well as soon as I take the time to download them into the PC.

Peace!

does the 10K include rb and bonuses?

gl for you both!
i love that challenge

dont forget to give many updates on your way!

actually i like several things ....

- finally calta teaches dandy some real poker ... i mean sss ..... well its definitely a way to make money (which itself is ofc reasonable and better than many other stupid things in life), but its not playing poker with all the complexities, metagame etc.

- the challenge itself is rly tough for you. i know your game quite a bit from our coachings calta, and you rly play way better than the average nl100 reg. your thought process and especially your poker mindset is way above average. BUT: even you have several small leaks (i mean we all have them ofc) on this limit and u might not be able to get most value out of nl100 atm. AND you just play nl100. 10k in 60 days @ nl100 is quite a bit. especially if u party around a bit and play ~ 45-50 days. hence, u have to make ~ 200/day. its definitely possible, but there is also a reasonable chance u might fail. (which is also ok i guess, 2M2M also failed but the show was great)
what i actually wanted to say ... i like the challenge cuz its rly challenging for you (i dont know about dandy, but u play sss ... so it has to be a challenge for u too i guss )

- your last post is the absolute truth about the game and was even for me an inspiring read. u have the right poker mindset. follow this path and u will win bigtime (not only in terms of $$) in the future.

btw: i hope our coachings started at hand 221.000

wow, what an inspiring reading! even tho u play just NL100 u can do lessons abt mindset to ppl many many limits above! fe: Mr. Matusoff or Hellmuth should deffo contact u bro! ♦ u re good. keep it up, i bet u ll be at NL1k in ~4-5months with this continuously dilligent work

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Yeah, my brother's post was really inspiring, I forgot to comment on that.

Now a few clarifications on our challenge:

1 - the 10K goal does NOT include Rakeback nor Bonuses, it must be achieved with our win-rate alone.

2 - The 10K goal is for BOTH of us, that means each will have to make 5K in 2 months, 2.5k each month. So success is quite possible. But we'll surely need to put in volume if we want to dodge variance.

Aiming for 10K each would be too much, as you guys said, and could end up being negative for our mind-set, putting us in "mindless grinding" mode. We want to be learning a lot during this time as well.

We'll be posting updates! See ya!

Originally posted by dandycal
Thanks for the feedback, guys! Yeah, my brother's post was really inspiring, I forgot to comment on that.

Now a few clarifications on our challenge:

1 - the 10K goal does NOT include Rakeback nor Bonuses, it must be achieved with our win-rate alone.

2 - The 10K goal is for BOTH of us, that means each will have to make 5K in 2 months, 2.5k each month. So success is quite possible. But we'll surely need to put in volume if we want to dodge variance.

Aiming for 10K each would be too much, as you guys said, and could end up being negative for our mind-set, putting us in "mindless grinding" mode. We want to be learning a lot during this time as well.

We'll be posting updates! See ya!

sensible, gl with that! i think it should be no problem for u guys.

Nice challenge, looking forward to follow you.

Interesting challenge I will be following it for sure but why move away from SSS it is working why not continue to move up would make it a lot easier to play something you know especially when you are issuing a challenge.

Good luck with the challenge guys , definitely doable. Would like to challenge myself like this too(ofc lower level ) but college is a bitch lately and not so much time for poker TT